Garba, Abdulhakeem; Kishk, Mohammed; Moore, David R.

Authors

Abdulhakeem Garba

Mohammed Kishk

David R. Moore

Contributors

P.W. Chan
Editor

C.J. Neilson
Editor

Abstract

Biomass as a Renewable Energy Technology (RET) is used to provide sustainable electricity to rural areas in several developing countries. As a result of dwindling power generation and supply in Nigeria representing between 10 and 34%, the rural communities have been negatively affected in their socio-economic activities. Considering the vast biomass resources in Nigerian rural areas, it is feasible to provide sustainable electricity to these communities through Biomass Energy Technologies (BETs). However, cost has been found to be a major constraint in adopting BETs. The research aims to evaluate the economics of BETs in generating sustainable and affordable electricity in Nigerian rural areas. Whole Life Costing (WLC) approach has been used to evaluate various capacities of BETs. All the BETs capacities evaluated except 50kW combustion system are cost competitive with existing fossil fuel sources used in generating electricity in Nigeria at US{dollar}0.13 without incentives. In the event of biomass fuels price increases between 50-100%, WLC/kWh of some scenarios will exceed the existing electricity tariff.